eBay Card of the Day: T.J. Oshie 2008-09 The Cup Patch Auto

As is my wont, I was way too early for set-up at the recent Awesome Card Show in Richardson, Texas. The promoter had been there by 7:30 the previous two times but this time was thinking more about 8:15-8:30 and thus I had time to kill and wandered across the street to the local McDonald’s for a cup of coffee.

This McDonald’s has a television set up so customers can watch while enjoying their meal. So, instead of reading the book I had brought in with me, I was watching the ESPN Sports Center broadcast.

During the part of the program I saw, they were discussing the social media impact of T.J. Oshie’s shoot-out performance against the Russians on Saturday. Apparently in the previous 30 days prior to that game, Oshie showed up on Twitter approximately 14,000 times while the day after his heroics, he was mentioned on more than a half million tweets. In addition, his personal Twitter following nearly doubled within a day. Those numbers show the power of the Olympics as a major popularity tool.

Even if Oshie never does anything more in his career, that game will be forever revered by all American hockey fans who watched it early that morning. Oshie rookie cards were a popular choice for fans who hopped online in the 24 hours or so after the game. Hundreds were sold on eBay at various price points. Several of his rookie auto patches from his debut in 2008-09 Upper Deck The Cup sold for $200 and up in the hours after Saturday’s game-winning goal.

The most affordable of his rookie cards is from the Upper Deck Victory set. Those can be had for under $3 but it’s those signed, numbered patch cards that really draw collectors in. In conjunction with eBay, this four-color patch card numbered to 74 (Oshie’s jersey number) is our Card of the Day and here is a copy currently being sold using the traditional eBay auction format.

Rich Klein has spent almost his entire life collecting baseball cards having begun at the tender age of seven. He has spent more than three decades in the organized hobby including editing the first 12 editions of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Card and Collectibles. He lives in Plano, TX along with his wife Dena and their two dogs. You can reach him at [email protected].